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Thursday, May 31, 2012

I blogged about the Enjoy Centre here and how much I really dig that place... lots of sun, great food, pretty flowers, spa. Seriously peeps, you have to hit up the Water Garden Spa sometime. Last night I went to a bachelorette spa party here (happy wedding, Heather!) and had the most relaxing time.

I actually went here for a birthday massage in January but never got to experience this awesome relax room. I'd definitely recommend visiting with a group so you can stay longer and lounge. I could have laid on these floating beds all. night. long. *sigh*

Thank you for getting married, Heather, now who wants to plan another group trip so we can all lounge and relax together??

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Um, does shopping count as actually accomplishing something I pinned on pinterest?? I like to think of shopping as being productive so I'm counting it: H&M dress pinned here and live and even more adorable (and wrinklier) in person....

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Hope you all had a great long weekend! We were busy around here, but the good kind of busy cause we got so much accomplished around the yard. Actually most of the credit goes to my husband and the other little worker bees. Thanks Steven, Heather and Len (and my mom for baby duty!). Landscaping is hard and definitely not my forte. I sorta feel like Mike should be the one writing this post because this project is all him and he's done such an amazing job. His planning definitely made this project flow smoothly and quickly. He actually did up the plans last summer but, with a baby on the way etc, etc, we just never got around to it.

Living in a newer neighbourhood things tend to look a little stark. The previous owners did some "landscaping" including grass (good!) and a sad little strip of dirt which was great for growing weeds (bad!).

Here's the before (with the plan sort of in action). Definitely in need of some life, isn't it?

And here's a look at where we're at after a long weekend of work....

We wanted simple and low maintenance, we'll be adding some limestone to cover the soil which hopefully means little to no weeding (just how I like it).

I think it's going to look even better once things start to grow and fill in. Those grasses will grow really large and full and the trees nice and tall to block the wonderful view of all our neighbours. Things are also still greening up around Edmonton, so excuse the sad grass. We also tackled the front yard, but I didn't get a photo and well, it's raining. I'll show it all once everything is finished!

I love accomplishing something so huge off the to-do list and can't wait to enjoy the yard this summer, now grow yard grow! Should be another busy one next weekend finishing up, but it'll be so worth it. Already it's so nice to look out back and see some greenery.

Friday, May 18, 2012

I've been spending a lot of time on instagram lately (I know, I know just another social media network to keep up with). I sorta love it's quick and dirty posting and how it allows me to capture the little moments of day to day life. I love looking back on these little things so I'm starting a recap of the week that was...

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Since we didn't find out what we were having before Alice was born, the nursery was designed to be gender neutral. I knew if it was a girl I didn't want an all pink room to begin with, but now that I have a little girlie I just can't resist. I added a small (like blink and you might miss it) punch of girliness to Alice's room today.

Just a teeny touch of pink and purple :) I also really want to add in some teal to tie in with all the other pops of teal in the room, but I can't for the life of me find the right coloured felt.

Best part, it took all but five minutes. Those are the best kinda projects, aren't they?

Friday, May 11, 2012

- rolls. Gone are the days of finding her where I left her, this girl is a little worm.

- sleep. I love sleep. Right around four months our sleeping went downhill. I think it's a combination of teething, rolling, growing and who knows what else... I swear she slept better as a newborn. I'm tired.

- baby food! Alice has had her first taste of food and I am proud to say she loves it! She is definitely her mother's daughter. We just need to expand her palette now beyond rice cereal, peas, and carrots.

- this is totally non baby related but I am obsessed with this taro frozen yogurt. so. good.

- my family and my friends. I'm grateful to have such a great support system right now. And of course my husband, he's pretty awesome too :)

- cute baby squeals. Alice is still not much of a laugher. She seems to prefer the silent kind, I guess it's just so funny no sound comes out?? She really loves peekaboo though and can get some pretty intense squeals going on. Squeals are also reserved for her cousin/bff, Sydney.

- the way her eyes light up when her daddy comes home.

- I never thought I'd say this but: making dinner. Okay, not every night, but I sorta appreciate when Mike comes home and hangs with Alice and I have some alone time in the kitchen to be productive and actually finish something I started. Maybe I should just change that to alone time...

- bath time. She get's really hyper around bath time and I love listening to her and Mike play.

- getting to bed by 9:00pm. Not so cool, being woken up an hour later and then realizing it's only an hour later... did I mention I'm tired ;)

It was near impossible getting a photo this month, just imagine lots of squealing, rolling and lots and lots of blurry pics. I love this photo and that hyper look in her eyes, it kinda captures her little personality right about now. So happy. So wiggly.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

As predicted the laundry room is slooowly moving along. The good news is it's still entirely functional, or maybe we'd move faster if it wasn't??

Anywho, I picked up one of the last touches to the room and one that I'm pretty excited about: the countertop. This was a huge debacle in the room. The washer/dryer is deeper than your standard countertop so the first thing we did was look into getting a custom countertop done. It's doable but not the most affordable option. We want it to look good but the reality is it is in a closet. Next we hit up IKEA, which I blame for weeks and weeks delay on this project.

I had written out an extremely long winded story, but I know you all have better things to do with your time so long story short: IKEA employees led us astray. First two visits we were told countertops had to be custom, turns out (3 weeks later) you can in fact pick up a countertop in store. Arg.

So on Monday I picked up the PRAGEL countertop and we will be rigging something up to make the standard 26" depth work for us. All for a wopping $80. That's more like it, sure wish that first guy at IKEA would have told me that.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

One of my favourite things to do while traveling is eat! Heck, that's one of my fav things even when I'm not traveling ;) We had some awesome meals in Victoria that were just too yummy not to share.

Fav place hands down was Red Fish Blue Fish, a little eatery right along the harbour. Giant line, but definitely worth the wait. You must go. Fish tacos, deep fried pickles, seafood poutine (yes, poutine!).

Amazing food and ocean view *sigh*, I love it.

Victoria is famous for it's high tea, especially at the Fairmont Empress. We popped in to look around but opted for the White Heather Tea Room, a local granny type place recommended by our b&b.

Alice's first high tea, how stinkin' adorable is that?

The majority of our eating was actually done at our b&b. As I mentioned in my recap post, breakfast was four freaking courses. Can you say full? Definitely worth every penny and worked out kinda awesome not having to venture out every morning with a baby.

In other news, Alice has mastered the high chair. We were actually a bit worried about if we'd be able to pull of restaurants or not. She can't sit up on her own yet, but with some strategically placed blankets and this support cushion I picked up at IKEA for $5, she was good to go! She surprisingly was pretty happy hanging out and staring at the other people in the restaurant while we ate. Phew!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

We'd been itching to get away with Alice for months but just kept putting it off. Where should we go, how far, will it be baby friendly, what will we pack?? Finally, we just bit the bullet, booked a trip and a week later we were on our way for our first family vacation to Victoria, BC.

Turns out Victoria is actually pretty baby friendly (and old people friendly, I can see why so many people go there to retire). Coming from brown and dirty Edmonton, it was so nice to soak up all the greenery and blooms everywhere. Seriously, this city was made for spring!

We stayed at the beautiful Ashcroft House Bed and Breakfast. I was a bit worried about staying at a b&b with a baby, but I contacted them ahead of time and they were more than willing to welcome a baby of her age. We booked the Orchid Suite which was the only room on the main floor so we didn't have to worry about a crying babe waking up the other guests.

It worked out pretty awesome. The suite had a bedroom, a giant bathroom, and a little kitchenette. It was like our own little apartment. I think we were all a bit tense the first night - us worrying about noise, Alice sleeping in a new bed - but her sleeping has been off at home anyway so at least we were tired in a beautiful place, right? We got through it and had some moderately restful nights after that. I mean how can you not in that giant king size bed, hello diagonal sleeping!

The best part had to be the amazing breakfasts: 4 delicious courses and baggies to take fresh baking to go, we were literally full until dinner.

And a block away from us was this...

We hit up the famous Butchart Gardens. I swear Mike almost turned right around when we pulled up and saw it was $30/person, but once we got inside we saw what all the fuss was about. Preeetttty.

Sometimes it felt like we were walking in a fairytale, I swear the squirrels were this close to coming up to talk to us!

Lots of walks, lots of naps, great food - all round a successful first trip with a baby. I'd do it again, though who knows what we'll be in for next time...